Ginger is our cat. Sometimes we call her "Meow Meow" and other times she is known as Gingivitis. She couldn't really be described as a house cat as she spends most of her time outdoors. From time to time she'll scratch on the window screen or the French doors to let us know that she'd like to come inside and sleep all day in the sunroom. Ah, the leisurely and independent life of a cat.
True to the reputation cats have gained of being finicky, she will beg for cat food, even when there is some in her dish in the garage. Over time we have come to understand that she wants "fresh" food because if we scoop a little more food on top, she'll eat on it. Can you believe, the cat thinks her food is stale if it sits out for a few hours. Ginger doesn't do leftovers. Well, please don't tell her. This will be a secret between you and me, okay? When she's not looking, I'll quickly poor the "stale" food back into the container and then scoop it out again. Magically, it is fresh again. She has not caught on to my trickery... yet.
A couple of days ago, Ginger wasn't interested in food at all. We were wondering if she might be sick. Here is the patient. She doesn't look ill, does she?
Tricia had me look outside on the patio outside the French doors. Ginger wasn't eating because she was sick. She wasn't eating because she was FULL. The old girl had hunted the previous evening and killed a rabbit. She dissected her kill, leaving the head on top, the cottontail to the left, the entrails to the right and two rabbit's feet.
I am not a superstitious person and I don't believe in luck. But if I did, I would say that the lucky rabbit's foot saying has been proven to be not true - for the poor rabbit at least. Le lapin.
And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Isaiah 11:6 (NASB)
The Bible tells us that in the Millennial Kingdom, members of the animal family will live peaceably with other animals and with humans as well. What a sight that will be to behold. As we listen to the news and learn of senseless violence and hatred and see many of our cities are becoming unlivable, we pray for this time of peace to come quickly. According to Bible prophecy, however, there are many things that must take place between now and then. God, give us the strength to endure. May you find us faithful when you return.
I happened upon an event that made me think of that verse. Cats are, by nature, independent animals. They do their own thing. Dogs are more friendly. Dogs AND cats together are like oil and water or fire and ice. But not all the time. Check out this photo of our cat, Ginger, and our dog, Belle:
It had been raining everyday (Raining cats and dogs, you might say) for two weeks. Belle was miserable out in the pasture so we brought her into the garage after the first day. At first Ginger kept her distance, but she warmed up to Belle, it seems. She and Ginger have struck up a friendship. The canine and feline have put aside their differences and have decided to give peace a chance.
We have a cat, and her name is Ginger. Ginger is fat. She is an outdoor cat, but likes to come in. She knows the window to our bedroom and will meow by our window to be let in. Early in the morning when she sees the light go on in our Sun Room, she'll meow by that window to be let in. Tricia opens the door and she'll go sit on her favorite chair and sleep for the better part of a day. Ginger is lazy.
I am not much of a 'cat person.' I'm not mean to Ginger, by any means but not a whole lot of warmth between us, either. My wife keeps reminding me of the good things that Ginger does. As if to put an exclamation mark on that thought, the other day Ginger proved her worth to me. Our fat cat came around the corner in brisk pursuit of something. She pounced into the Louisiana Iris that grows alongside the patio like a tiger chasing an antelope.
She brought out a mouse and paraded in front of me to show off her skills and prowess as a hunter.
She sat down and let the mouse go. The mouse ran away, but Ginger was quickly on top of the mouse, toying with it with her paws. She played with it until she got bored and killed it.
Ginger dismembered the mouse and left what she didn't eat by the back door. We always have to be careful when stepping out so that we don't step on remains of Ginger's prey. Okay, I'll be honest and admit it, Ginger > mice.
I had mentioned last week that our cat, Ginger, mysteriously disappeared. Tricia had called me at work to tell me that Ginger had been missing since the afternoon before. She missed supper and breakfast and was no where to be found. She had never done that before. She is an outside cat that hunts, but she also comes inside from time to time and is never far from home.
After two days we were more than concerned. She was a family pet, but mostly was Benjamin's cat. We have the worst luck with pets! I went to a feed store in Sulphur, LA to get my solar powered electric fence charger worked on and noticed a hand-written sign announcing "Free Kittens." I made a mental note to go back to the feed store, call the number and have them text me photos of the kittens. However, Tricia mentioned, "How can we ever replace Ginger? She was the perfect cat."
Well.... I got a text at work from Tricia in all caps saying, "GINGER IS BACK." She just mysteriously showed up like nothing was wrong two days later.
What in the devil happened? Where did she go? Well, we'll never know since cats can't talk. We do know she has a large cut next to her left eye. She is acting real quiet and mainly naps all day. She was initially having a difficult time hopping up on anything, so we assume she's sore. But by Sunday afternoon, she had jumped on top of my car and was napping.
If I had to guess, I'd say she got into a scuffle with a raccoon, a possum, a dog, or other wild animal. She probably got beaten and climbed up into a tree to nurse her wounds and escape her adversary. Once the coast was clear, she returned home.
So everyone is happy and all is right with the world. Well, at least at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm. I trust you all had a nice weekend.
While at work today, I talked to Tricia and sensed some sadness in her voice. "Ginger's missing," she said. Ginger is our cat. She's mainly an outside cat, but there are times that she spends time indoors, sleeping on her favorite chairs. "The last time I saw her was yesterday afternoon," she told me. "She was sleeping on the trampoline. Then she didn't come in for supper, nor breakfast, and I haven't seen her all day."
I got home at around 6 pm and there was still no sign of her. There was a heaviness in our home. Finally, Benjamin drove in from work and we regretfully told him the news. Ginger is primarily Benjamin's cat, but he loves all the animals. He was very quiet - just sitting in silence on the stairs for a while. We went out and picked blueberries together and talked. I explained to him that loving someone or something makes you vulnerable. You love them and then they are gone. There is an emptiness. It hurts. A big part of you wants to wall yourself off to protect yourself and never wants to ever feel that loss again. But you must. Loss is a part of life. You have great memories and there is great sadness, but you must go on. Benjamin understands.
Have you ever lost an animal? It's tough. Pets can be a good companion. Ginger hunted rats and has been known to catch the occasional squirrel or bird for a snack. We've had a bad streak going with our pets. First, Russ' cat disappeared and then both of our dogs died earlier this year to sickness within a month of each other. Whew. Time to lighten the mood with a little humor from "Dumb and Dumber."
Ginger is wearing a pink collar with our phone number on it. We have been hoping and praying that Ginger shows up soon. Come on home, Ginger!
"You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am I'll come running to see you again, Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall, hey now, all you have to do is call and I'll be there yeah, yeah, you've got a friend." - James Taylor
I spent a little time in the garden today checking out the okra seedlings that are just popping up above the surface of the soil. The green beans are all blooming and we'll be picking fresh snap beans shortly. The sugar snap peas are finishing up and I'm now saving seed to replant this fall. The tomatoes are blooming like crazy and we're hoping to have a good crop this year. Last year was a dismal one.
As I closed the garden gate and walked over the bridge, something caught my eye. In my peripheral vision I saw movement where there shouldn't have been, high up in the fork of a tree.
Why, it's Ginger, our cat. She wants to be a house cat, I think, and sometimes Benjamin brings her indoors, but she mainly stays outside. She's brought rats, mice, and birds to us to prove that she is a hunter. She is pretty independent and bold. Why is she up in the tree?
Then I follow the gaze of Ginger's eyes and see immediately why she's up in the tree. Belle, our 3 month old Great Pyrenees puppy was stretched out on the cool concrete by the garage trying her best to have an innocent look on her face. "What? Me?" Ginger and Belle haven't exactly warmed up to one another. I thought that they could be friends. I think Belle would like to be friends with Ginger, but the feeling isn't mutual.
Or perhaps they're just practicing social distancing from one another?
With cows and goats and chickens on the property, one needs a little help. I kind of talked about the help that we have on our little homestead farm a while back. This weekend I was able to take some photos of our laborers that live in housing that we provide as remuneration for their hard work to ensure that our animals were safe. These hardworking individuals are tasked with a multitude of duties that keep them busy, night and day, with rarely a day off.
I thought I could reintroduce you to our... ahem... interns or working staff. First there is Big Boy, our Great Pyrenees. While technically a livestock guardian dog, his idea of guarding and protecting chickens proved to be not exactly what we were looking for. One day we encountered him guarding our flock. Sounds good, but the hen he was guarding was bleeding and flapping her broken wings as he was eating her.
Big Boy was banished from the pasture and now is a "watch dog." He is posted outside the garage and barks his head off relentlessly at passersby and wandering dogs, cats, possums and squirrels. Here is a photo of our busy animals in action - Big Boy and Ginger.
Ginger is our barn cat. The idea is that she would live in our barn and hunt rats - except she doesn't reside in the barn. She lives in our garage and hunts Cat Chow that's poured in her bowl. She's gotten a little fat and instead of stealthily creeping up on rodents, her primary instinctual craving is for naps in the sun.
Sometimes, if particularly motivated, she'll roll over and change positions. Due to Ginger's lack of relentless and energetic pursuit of pesky rodents that inhabit our barn, rats have multiplied faster than rabbits and we've resorted to allowing snakes, rat traps, poison and buckets of water do the job of dispatching the rodents in our barn. Which works out quite nicely for Ginger, giving her more time for napping in the sun.
But she occasionally catches and kills and eats small birds. A couple of weeks ago, we found remnants of a squirrel that she devoured. Only a tail and a foot remained. It must have been a very slow squirrel.
While Big Boy and Ginger might not be perfectly suited to do their appointed tasks, they're part of our family, and we accept them, warts and all.
In an earlier post where we were talking about separating
curds from whey and how whey is a natural preservative, I promised that I would
show how we use whey to preserve foods.
Lacto fermentation is a good alternative to freezing or canning. We like to use a combination of all three
food storage methods. We generally
ferment vegetables and make sauerkraut with cabbage and kimchi with bok
choy. Those are both good. But my favorite lacto-fermented food item (and it's not even close) is
Ginger Carrots. We make this every year
when the carrot crop comes in.
The recipe comes from Sally Fallon’s Nourishing
Traditions Cook book and it is very easy to make. This dish is chock full of beneficial
bacteria. The bacteria that aids in
digestion. So what you are supposed to
do is eat a bit of this just prior to your meal. It’s also great for snacking on. It is cool and tangy. The ingredients to make 1 quart is as follows:
4 cups of grated carrots
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons sea salt
4 Tablespoons Whey
We generally make a gallon at a time. . So
here’s what you do:
First, cut the tops off of your carrots and peel the
skins off. This is a good use for all
the ‘baby carrots’ that we harvested this year.
Getting the baby carrots ready
Then process the carrots in a food processer with the
grating blade on.
Processing the Carrots
We love ginger, so we grate the fresh ginger into the big
mixing bowl where we have dumped our grated carrots.
Grating fresh ginger root
We add some sea salt…
(If you don't have whey, you can simply add more salt)
And then we add the whey that we reserved from the curds
the other day. We generally have a jar
of whey in a jar in the back of the fridge for this purpose.
Adding the whey...
Now comes the fun part.
After mixing the shredded carrots, grated ginger, sea salt and whey up,
we use the head to a tenderizing hammer to ‘bruise’ the carrots. We pound and pound and pound. It is a great stress reliever and
exercise. Pounding on the carrots cause
the juices of the carrots to flow.
Pounding it out
Next we spoon the carrots into quart-size mason jars and
tightly pack it into the jars until the carrot mixture is an inch below the top
of the jars. We put the lids and rings
on the jars and set aside on the counter tops out of the way. The orange color lights up the kitchen!
Beautiful! But now we have to wait - 3 days, then 2 to 3 months. (Patience is a virtue!)
We label the top of one of the jars with a sticky
note. You want to leave the jars at room
temperature for 3 days and then we move them into the refrigerator. The sticky note reminds us when to put them
in the fridge.
A helpful reminder
We’ll ‘forget about them’ for a couple of months. We find that they are at the peak flavor at
around the 2-3 month timeframe, so at that time we’ll pull a jar out of the fridge
and have a serving as a side dish or salad prior to every meal. I never would have thought that I would’ve
liked this, but I do!
So we left off yesterday in Our How to Make Kombucha Tea Post explaining how we made kombucha. After 10 days of fermenting on the top shelf in our laundry room where it stays a constant temperature of 78 degrees, we determined that we'd consider it done. You can leave it to ferment longer, but the taste profile changes and it gets less sweet and a little more 'tangy,' having a 'vinegar' taste.
We unscrewed the lid to reveal that another SCOBY had formed on top of the tea. That's when you know it's done. The 'mother' or older SCOBY was right underneath. Each time you go through fermentation, it will multiply and grow another SCOBY, allowing you peel one off and share it with a friend so that they can start brewing kombucha.
A New SCOBY
Simply lift the new SCOBY and the older one out of the fermented tea, and place it in a quart jar. You'll use it to start brewing your next batch.
Removing the SCOBY
We pour just enough tea out of the original batch into the jar with the SCOBY and the contents will serve as your 'starter culture for your next brewing. The recipe calls for a starter culture of 2 cups per gallon.
But before we begin brewing another batch, we need to drink this one! You can either drink the tea as is from the gallon jar that you removed the SCOBY from OR you can flavor the tea and let it undergo a second fermenting. Tricia likes it plain and enjoys drinking it as is. Me? I like some flavorings. Cultures for Health has a You Tube video below that you can watch to show you how to flavor your kombucha. Click on the arrow to watch:
In flavoring ours, we wanted a bold flavor and looked around to find something with a different flavor profile. We had some leftover whole cranberries in the freezer from Thanksgiving, so we crushed a handful of them in a bowl and then grated a couple of tablespoons fresh ginger. Cranberry-Ginger Kombucha! That sounds interesting, doesn't it?
Grating fresh ginger over crushed whole cranberries
We carefully put the cranberry/ginger mash in a juice bottle and using a funnel, poured the fermented kombucha into the bottle.
Flavoring the kombucha
You want to use a bottle that allows an airtight seal, because the second fermentation will produce carbon dioxide and give it an effervescent, fizziness. Put it out of direct sunlight on the counter and allow it to ferment for a couple more days so that the flavors intertwine. Now we wait... Again.
While we're waiting on the flavored kombucha to go through the second fermentation, we start our next batch brewing. Simply brew another gallon of tea and add 1 cup sugar per gallon and allow to cool, and pour the starter liquid you reserved from the first batch:
And go ahead and add the SCOBY:
Put a cloth over the top, fastened by a rubber band and set it back on the top of the cabinet for 10 days. You can see the SCOBY in the bottom.
After two days, the flavored kombucha is ready. I'm excited to try it. The button on the lid was popped out, letting us know that it was carbonated. I actually ordered a couple special bottles with flip-top lids (Grolsch-style bottles) for the next time. Anyway, we opened the top and poured the tea through a strainer to catch all the solids, and then back into the bottle.
I poured a glassful with a couple cubes of ice. You can see the carbonation bubbles on the side of the glass along with the beautiful, reddish color of the tea. In smelling it, you can smell the ginger.
Cranberry Ginger Kombucha!
Now for the taste test... DELICIOUS! We really enjoyed it and the gallon was gone quickly, especially since Russ came home from college and really liked it. I guess we'll have to brew bigger batches from here on out. The Cranberry Ginger Kombucha was a nice flavor. We're going to try other flavors. Cultures for Health lists these interesting flavors that you can make:
Other Flavoring Ideas and Combinations
Blueberries and cinnamon
Berries and fresh or candied ginger
Strawberries and basil
Cherries and almond extract
Pears and almond extract
Apple juice and cinnamon
Lemon or lime juice and fresh ginger
Pineapple juice, coconut water, and coconut extract
